Budget challenge: day #5

Hi folx,

Sorry I’m late again. Unfortunately I have some bad news. I will not be able to continue with this challenge. I am simply too tired to continue. I did not expect that this challenge would cost so much energy, both mentally and physically. I just don’t have the spoons to do this much in a day (if you are not familiar with the spoon theory, I recommend that you read this). I am very aware that I am lucky to be able to quit eating on such a tight budget. Doing so however does not mean running to the store to buy convenience products, because I can’t. It simply means that I stop documenting everything I eat and writing daily. It also means that I stop being mindful of what food items in my pantry, fridge and freezer I can and cannot use and that by doing so I can use items such as store bought soymilk, noodles and store bought bread again, which may not seem like much of a luxury to most people, but are an immense time saver. I will have to continue living of a budget, though fortunately not as tight as the one I had set for this challenge.

Fortunately I did learn a few things from doing this, so it definitely was not a waste of time. For one I have learned how lucky I am with the budget I do have. It’s easy to forget how much you have when most people around you have more. However, that’s no excuse to forget how many people have less than you. It does not make your struggle any less real to remember how much more others have to struggle to survive. It also made me very grateful for not having to work a job, while so many others with similar struggles as mine do. There are so many people working themselves to death just to survive, whether they have disabilities or not and it’s an immense privilege not to be one of those people. When I started this challenge I had set out to show that anyone can go vegan despite their budget, that only availability was a valid excuse not to go vegan. Even though I still think it is not impossible (I will elaborate on that later) I have definitely learned that it’s not as easy as it’s made out to be. Making every little thing from scratch takes a lot of work, which is just not an option for everyone, whether it’s because of the incredibly long hours someone works, a disability or even simply not being a good enough cook. I have also become aware that I and other vegans in a more privileged position are simply sick of hearing veganism is too expensive from people who could easily afford vegan convenience products. Even though wanting to prove those people wrong is totally understandable, our approach is wrong. Instead of showing those people they could easily be vegan we try to show everyone can go vegan, in turn bashing those who can’t. Long story short, I have learned to respect other peoples struggles and limits. I thought I already did that, but apparently not.

I still believe that budget alone is not a reason not to go vegan, however budget is never our only circumstance.

On that note I want to show you the food I had left.

As you can see there’s still quite a bit of food left, along with a little over €14. I think I would have been able to manage if I hadn’t been this exhausted.

I also still want to share with you what I ate. For breakfast I made the same oat and banana pancakes again, but this time for both of us. I didn’t have enough soy milk left, so I substituted half with water, which also worked fine. My partner slept in though, so they reheated their pancakes in the oven in the afternoon, which worked great, so these pancakes could be prepped. I don’t know how they freeze though, but that might even be possible.

After breakfast I made a new batch of soymilk (which you can see in the right picture above). I skipped lunch, because I didn’t have the energy to make any. I had planned on making avocado pasta, but the avocado had already gone bad.

For dinner we had teriyaki tofu and cucumber salad.

Today I skipped breakfast and had pizza leftovers I found in the freezer for lunch. Today I will also be starting preparations for our potluck tomorrow. Monday will be a rest day.

As for the recipes I did manage to create during those few days, I will be posting those in the recipe section somewhere in the following week.

Lastly a shoutout to those who are vegan despite their struggles, to those who want to be vegan but can’t be and those who fight for their own rights and those of fellow humans.

Thanks to those who stuck with me through this mess and those who will be back for future blogs. I hope I’ll see you again soon. Bye!